Tokyo court approves Micron's purchase of Elpida

MEMORY MAKER Micron has announced that the Tokyo District Court has approved its bid to buy bankrupt Japanese memory manufacturer Elpida.

Last year Elpida entered bankruptcy after failing to weather the DRAM drought and being squeezed out by Samsung and Hynix. US memory firm Micron announced plans to buy the company but the deal had to be approved by the Tokyo District Court. The court granted its approval today.

Micron believes that by buying Elpida it will be able to compete with Samsung and Hynix in terms of both volume and price in the low margin DRAM market. The firm hopes that by snapping up Elpida, which has high profile customers such as Apple, it can take advantage of economies of scale that will in turn lead to lower prices.

Mark Durcan, CEO of Micron said, "We are very pleased with the Tokyo District Court's approval of Elpida's plan of reorganization. This is an important milestone that brings us a significant step closer to Micron and Elpida becoming the world's second largest memory company with the strongest product portfolio in the industry."

Micron said finalisation of the Tokyo court's order could happen within four weeks if no appeal is filed. The firm said it is working with Elpida to close the deal within the first half of 2013. µ